It’s a bit of a feel-good story- student who was a complete pain in the a**; returns to his alma matter after becoming successful; thanking the faulty member who reached out and connected; and making a sizable donation.

From Dirk Johnson’s New York Times article:

“In the early 1980s, James J. Liautaud was a trouble-making student at Elgin Academy who ranked near the bottom of his high school class. He drank beer. He smoked cigarettes. He skipped class.

The dean, James Lyons, recognized the rebellion as insecurity, and saw what others did not – a student from a financially struggling family, trying to fit in at a prestigious school among wealthier, more polished peers. The dean, who had a working-class upbringing himself, put his job on the line. “If he goes,” he told the faculty, “I go.”

Faculty connection is a great strength of private schools- boarding and day. Faculty connect; nurture; and find the diamonds in the rough- even when it takes some patience, effort and risk.

As Mr. Liautaud told the Times, “It’s a real simple deal…Jim Lyons believed in me.”

The rough diamonds don’t always turn out to be as wildly financially successful as Mr. Liautaud, but the number of rough diamonds uncovered, nurtured and smoothed by dedicated private school faculty is countless.